The Kidron Valley ( classical transliteration, ''Cedron'', from , ''Naḥal Qidron'', literally Qidron River; also Qidron Valley) is a valley originating slightly northeast of the Old City of

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

, which then separates the

Temple Mount The Temple Mount (), also known as the Noble Sanctuary (Arabic: الحرم الشريف, 'Haram al-Sharif'), and sometimes as Jerusalem's holy esplanade, is a hill in the Old City of Jerusalem, Old City of Jerusalem that has been venerated as a ...

from the

Mount of Olives The Mount of Olives or Mount Olivet (; ; both lit. 'Mount of Olives'; in Arabic also , , 'the Mountain') is a mountain ridge in East Jerusalem, east of and adjacent to Old City of Jerusalem, Jerusalem's Old City. It is named for the olive, olive ...

, and ending at the

Dead Sea The Dead Sea (; or ; ), also known by #Names, other names, is a landlocked salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east, the Israeli-occupied West Bank to the west and Israel to the southwest. It lies in the endorheic basin of the Jordan Rift Valle ...

. Beyond Jerusalem it continues in a general south-easterly direction through the

Judean Desert The Judaean Desert or Judean Desert (, ) is a desert in the West Bank and Israel that stretches east of the ridge of the Judaean Mountains and in their rain shadow, so east of Jerusalem, and descends to the Dead Sea. Under the name El-Bariyah, ...

in the

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

, reaching the Dead Sea near the settlement of Ovnat, and descending along its course. In ancient Hebrew sources, as well as in Arabic, different segments of the valley bear different names.

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

names include وادي الجوز, Wadi el-Joz, 'Valley of the Walnut', but possibly a shortening of "

Valley of Josaphat The Valley of Josaphat (; variants: Valley of Jehoshaphat and Valley of Yehoshephat) is a Biblical place mentioned by name in the Book of Joel ( and ): "I will gather together all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Josaphat: "The ...

", for the upper segment, near the

; and Wadi en-Nar, 'Fire Valley', for the rest of it – with at least the segment at the ancient

Mar Saba The Holy Lavra of Saint Sabbas, known in Arabic and Syriac as Mar Saba (; ; ; ) and historically as the Great Laura of Saint Sabas, is a Greek Orthodox monastery overlooking the Kidron Valley in the Bethlehem Governorate of Palestine, in th ...

(' Saint Sabbas') monastery also known in the 19th century as Wadi er-Rahib, 'Monk's Valley'. In its upper part, the

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

neighbourhood of Wadi Joz bears the valley's Arabic name.Goffart, Walter. After Rome's Fall. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998. The Jewish settlement of Kedar, in the

, located on a ridge above the valley, is named after the valley's Hebrew name. The

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Yehoshafat'', the "

". It appears in Jewish eschatologic prophecies, which include the return of

Elijah Elijah ( ) or Elias was a prophet and miracle worker who lived in the northern kingdom of Israel during the reign of King Ahab (9th century BC), according to the Books of Kings in the Hebrew Bible. In 1 Kings 18, Elijah defended the worsh ...

, followed by the arrival of the

Messiah In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of '' mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach ...

, and the War of Gog and Magog and Judgment Day. The upper Kidron Valley holds Jerusalem's most important cemetery from the

First Temple period The history of ancient Israel and Judah spans from the early appearance of the Israelites in Canaan's hill country during the late second millennium BCE, to the establishment and subsequent downfall of the two Israelite kingdoms in the mid- ...

, the Silwan necropolis, assumed to have been used by the highest-ranking officials residing in the city, with

rock-cut tombs A rock-cut tomb is a burial chamber that is cut into an existing, naturally occurring rock formation, so a type of rock-cut architecture. They are usually cut into a cliff or sloping rock face, but may go downward in fairly flat ground. It was a ...

dating between the 9th and 7th centuries BCE.
"The Necropolis from the Time of the Kingdom of Judah at Silwan, Jerusalem", David Ussishkin, ''The Biblical Archaeologist'', Vol. 33, No. 2 (May, 1970), pp. 33–46 The upper Kidron Valley segment north of the Old City was one of the main burial grounds of Jerusalem in the

Second Temple period The Second Temple period or post-exilic period in Jewish history denotes the approximately 600 years (516 BCE – 70 CE) during which the Second Temple stood in the city of Jerusalem. It began with the return to Zion and subsequent reconstructio ...

, where hundreds of tombs have survived until today, while the segment east of, and opposite the Temple Mount, boasts several excellently preserved monumental tombs from the same period.Hachlili, Rachel
''Jewish Funerary Customs, Practices and Rites in the Second Temple Period''
Boston: Brill, Leiden, 2005. Pages 2, 30-36, 237-242. Several of the Second Temple period tombs were also used later in time, either as burial or as shelters for hermits and monks of the large monastic communities which inhabited the Kidron Valley during the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the ...

period (4th–7th century). The ancient tombs in this area attracted the attention of ancient travelers, most notably

Benjamin of Tudela Benjamin of Tudela (), also known as Benjamin ben Jonah, was a medieval Jewish traveler who visited Europe, Asia, and Africa in the twelfth century. His vivid descriptions of western Asia preceded those of Marco Polo by a hundred years. With his ...

.Adler, Marcus Nathan. ''The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela''. London: Oxford University Press, 1907. A source of confusion is the fact that the modern name "Kidron Valley" (''Nahal Kidron'' in Hebrew) applies to the entire length of a long

wadi Wadi ( ; ) is a river valley or a wet (ephemerality, ephemeral) Stream bed, riverbed that contains water only when heavy rain occurs. Wadis are located on gently sloping, nearly flat parts of deserts; commonly they begin on the distal portion ...

, which starts north of the Old City of Jerusalem and ends at the Dead Sea, while the biblical names ''Nahal Kidron'', ''Emek Yehoshafat'', ''King’s Valley'' etc. might refer to certain parts of this valley located in the immediate vicinity of ancient Jerusalem, but not to the entire wadi, and certainly not to the long segment crossing the Judean desert. Similarly, in Arabic, large wadis have many names, each applied to a certain distinct segment of its course.

Etymology

The Hebrew name Qidron is derived from the root ''qadar'', "to be dark", and may be meant in this context as "dusky". In Christian tradition the similarity between the Greek word for cedar, κέδρος (''kedros''), and the Greek name of the valley as used in the

Septuagint The Septuagint ( ), sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of the Seventy (), and abbreviated as LXX, is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Biblical Hebrew. The full Greek ...

, Kedron, has led to the Qidron Valley being wrongly called "Valley of the Cedars".

Identification with biblical locations

Valley of Jehoshaphat

The

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Valley of Jehoshaphat – Emek Yehoshafat" (), meaning "The valley where Yahweh shall judge." Not all scholars agree with the traditional view that the Kidron Valley, as the valley situated between Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives to the east, is the location of the Valley of Jehoshaphat. The Kidron Valley was not associated with the Valley of Jehoshaphat until the 4th century AD, making this identification somewhat uncertain since no actual valley of this name is known to pre-Christian antiquity. Biblical commentator

Adam Clarke Adam Clarke (176226 August 1832) was an Irish writer and biblical scholar. As a writer and biblical scholar, he published an influential Bible commentary among other works. Additionally, he was a Methodist theologian who served three times as ...

claims that the Valley of Judgment is a symbolic place.

King's Garden and King's Valley

In the times of the

Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

kings, the Kidron Valley was identified with, at least in part, the King's Garden; the kings owned land in the area. That the upper Kidron Valley was also known as the King's Valley, in which Absalom set up his monument or "pillar" (see ; no connection to the much later " Absalom's Pillar"), is problematic. The Bible does not make this identification explicit, and the association can only be inferred as associated with En-rogel, which is farther down the Kidron Valley towards the desert. The name 'King's Valley' may be derived from its location just east of the palace of David in the City of David on the western slopes of the Kidron Valley and south of where the platform was built. View of Kidron valley with the monument of Absalom - Cootwijck Johannes Van - 1619

View of Kidron valley with the monument of Absalom - Cootwijck Johannes Van - 1619

Monumental tombs

The three monumental tombs on the eastern side of the Kidron Valley are among the most well-known landmarks of ancient Jerusalem. These are, from north to south, the so-called "

Tomb of Absalom The Tomb of Absalom (), also called Absalom's Pillar, is an ancient Rock-cut tombs in ancient Israel, monumental rock-cut tomb with a conical roof located in the Kidron Valley in Jerusalem, a few metres from the Tomb of Zechariah and the Tomb of ...

" (Hebrew: Yad Avshalom), which rises in front of the so-called "Cave" or "Tomb of Jehoshaphat", the (correctly named) Tomb of Benei Hezir (''Benei Hezir'' is the Hebrew for "sons of Hezir", meaning the Hezir priestly family ), and the so-called " Tomb of Zechariah", which could quite likely be the '' nefesh'' of the Tomb of Benei Hezir. Absalom's Tomb consists of two parts. First, a lower cube hewn out of the bedrock, decorated with engaged Ionic columns bearing a Doric frieze and crowned by an Egyptian cornice. This part of the monument contains a small chamber with an entrance and two arcosolia (arched funeral niches) and constitutes the actual tomb. The second part, built of ashlars, is placed on top of the rock-hewn cube. It consists of a square pedestal carrying a round drum, itself topped by a conical roof. The cone is slightly concave and is crowned by an Egyptian-style lotus flower. The upper part has the general shape of a '' tholos'' and is interpreted as a '' nefesh'' or monument for the tomb below, and possibly also for the adjacent "Cave of Jehoshaphat". The "Pillar of Absalom" is dated to the 1st century CE. Literally, the word '' nefesh'' means 'soul', but in a funerary context it is the term applied to a form of funerary monument. In descriptions of the tombs of the Jewish nobility, the pyramid shape is also emphasized as the mark of a tomb. This would imply that ''nefesh'' and pyramid were synonymous. The Jewish tombs in the Kidron Valley are the best examples of this form of ''nefesh''. They appear as a rectangular, pyramid-capped monument. Similar forms of the nefesh decorate ossuaries, with the addition of a dome-capped column. In Jerusalem the ''nefesh'' as a tomb monument stood either above or beside the tomb; set on steps or on a base.Finegan, J. ''The Archeology of the New Testament''. Princeton, 1969.

Scriptural significance

Hebrew Bible

It was in this valley where King Jehoshaphat is thought to have overthrown the enemies of Israel ().

King David David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Damas ...

fled through the Kidron Valley during the rebellion of

Absalom Absalom ( , ), according to the Hebrew Bible, was an Israelite prince. Born to David and Maacah, who was from Geshur, he was the only full sibling of Tamar. He is described in the Hebrew Bible as being exceptionally beautiful, as is his siste ...

(). Chapters 29, 30 and 31 of 2 Chronicles () cover King

Hezekiah Hezekiah (; ), or Ezekias (born , sole ruler ), was the son of Ahaz and the thirteenth king of Kingdom of Judah, Judah according to the Hebrew Bible.Stephen L Harris, Harris, Stephen L., ''Understanding the Bible''. Palo Alto: Mayfield. 1985. "G ...

's call for the sanctification of the ministers of the Lord, the purification of unclean things, an invitation to all Israel and Judah to celebrate

Passover Passover, also called Pesach (; ), is a major Jewish holidays, Jewish holiday and one of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals. It celebrates the Exodus of the Israelites from slavery in Biblical Egypt, Egypt. According to the Book of Exodus, God in ...

in Jerusalem, and liturgical reforms. As part of these changes, which took place around 700 BCE, "altars for offering incense they took away and threw into the Wadi Kidron" (). During the same reforms and as part of the ritual cleaning of the

Temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...

, the

priests A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, ...

removed the unclean items from the inner part of the Temple to the courts, and the

Levites Levites ( ; ) or Levi are Jewish males who claim patrilineal descent from the Tribe of Levi. The Tribe of Levi descended from Levi, the third son of Jacob and Leah. The surname ''Halevi'', which consists of the Hebrew definite article "" ''Ha-' ...

carried the unclean items to Wadi Kidron ().

Kidron Valley in Jewish eschatology

The Book of Joel mentions that God will assemble all nations in the "Valley of Jehoshaphat" (, ).

Gospels

According to the

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

Jesus Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

crossed the valley many times travelling between Jerusalem and

Bethany Bethany (,Murphy-O'Connor, 2008, p152/ref> Syriac language, Syriac: ܒܝܬ ܥܢܝܐ ''Bēṯ ʿAnyā''), locally called in Palestinian Arabic, Arabic Al-Eizariya or al-Aizariya (, "Arabic nouns and adjectives#Nisba,

lace Lace is a delicate fabric made of yarn or thread in an open weblike pattern, made by machine or by hand. Generally, lace is split into two main categories, needlelace and bobbin lace, although there are other types of lace, such as knitted o ...

of Lazarus (name), L ...

. The valley contains the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus prayed the night before he was crucified. The name Kidron was mentioned in .

Archaeological excavations

Upper course

The Akeldama Tombs

The Akeldma Tombs were discovered in 1989 at the confluence of the Kidron and Hinnom Valleys, south of Jerusalem's Old City, and were excavated and published by archaeologists Gideon Avni and Zvi Greenhut. In 1989, the

Jerusalem Municipality The Jerusalem Municipality (), the seat of the Israeli municipal administration, consists of a number of buildings located on Jaffa Road in the city of Jerusalem. History British Mandate town hall (1930) Jerusalem's old town hall was bui ...

conducted routine development work in the area. Upon widening a narrow street near one of the approaches to the Silwan village, bulldozers uncovered a number of square openings hewn into rock. The

Israel Antiquities Authority The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA, ; , before 1990, the Israel Department of Antiquities) is an independent Israeli governmental authority responsible for enforcing the 1978 Law of Antiquities. The IAA regulates excavation and conservatio ...

immediately stopped the road construction. After uncovering the underground spaces, archaeologists found themselves standing inside large burial complexes which appeared intact. Moving carefully from one chamber to another, flashlights revealed an abundance of artifacts scattered on the floors, pottery and glass vessels, oil lamps and many ornamental

ossuaries An ossuary is a chest, box, building, well, or site made to serve as the final resting place of human skeletal remains. They are frequently used where burial space is scarce. A body is first buried in a temporary grave, then after some years th ...

. The three large caves proved to be part of an extensive Jewish burial ground in use at the end of the Second Temple period, which terminated in the year 70 AD, when Jerusalem was conquered and the Temple destroyed by the Roman legions.

Development and plans

Upper course

As of 2010, there is a controversial proposal to reconstruct part of the Kidron Valley, an Arab neighborhood of Silwan in

East Jerusalem East Jerusalem (, ; , ) is the portion of Jerusalem that was Jordanian annexation of the West Bank, held by Jordan after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, as opposed to West Jerusalem, which was held by Israel. Captured and occupied in 1967, th ...

, and turn it into a park to be called the Garden of the King.

Lower course

A road crossing the very steep Wadi Naar (lower Kidron Valley) and connecting Arab towns has been substantially upgraded as part of the USAID effort to modernise the Arab infrastructure. An existing road has been widened and re-paved, and efforts were made to improve the route it takes."Land owners angered over new West Bank road plan." Ma'an News Agency, 18 December 2010, accessed 20 September 2018

Kidron stream restoration project

Currently, part of East Jerusalem's and the

Palestinian Authority The Palestinian Authority (PA), officially known as the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), is the Fatah-controlled government body that exercises partial civil control over the Palestinian enclaves in the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, ...

's sewage waters flow freely into the Kidron stream causing severe environmental damage in the

Judean desert The Judaean Desert or Judean Desert (, ) is a desert in the West Bank and Israel that stretches east of the ridge of the Judaean Mountains and in their rain shadow, so east of Jerusalem, and descends to the Dead Sea. Under the name El-Bariyah, ...

and the

Dead sea The Dead Sea (; or ; ), also known by #Names, other names, is a landlocked salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east, the Israeli-occupied West Bank to the west and Israel to the southwest. It lies in the endorheic basin of the Jordan Rift Valle ...

area. In a rare collaboration with the Palestinian Authority, Hagihon is leading the Kidron stream restoration project with a budget of close to a billion shekels. According to the plan the sewage flow to the stream will be stopped and diverted to a new collection line, through an 8-km long pipe to the Og purification facility. To avoid damage to the natural valley as well as to the Marsaba Monastery and other archeological sites, the route of the sewage line was diverted from the stream itself, through a 60 meter deep 1.3 km long tunnel. The project also includes the construction of a

hydroelectric Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is Electricity generation, electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies 15% of the world's electricity, almost 4,210 TWh in 2023, which is more than all other Renewable energ ...

station to generate green electricity. The purified water will be used for agriculture and irrigation of palm groves in the Jordan Valley and the Palestinian Authority.

References

External links

Pictorial Compendium of Kidron Valley on Madain Project Photos of the Kidron Valley
at the

Manar al-Athar Manar al-Athar is a photo archive based at the Faculty of Classics at the University of Oxford which aims to provide high-quality open-access images of archaeological sites and buildings. The archive's collection focuses on areas of the Roman Em ...

photo archive * {{Authority control Hebrew Bible valleys Geography of Jerusalem Landforms of Jerusalem District Valleys of Israel Judaean Desert